( Continued from page 10) walking ability. I wanted him to be big and strong and powerful with a lot of heart and stamina, 16 at the sacrifice of natural walking ability. We hands or slightly under. I wanted top conformation, short back, long neck, good head, and four must breed to guard and protect this natural inherited head-nodding walking ability with all strong legs. I wanted him to look like a Stud and our strength, with all our might- else we could act like a Stud! A pretty big order, it was! well end up with manmade gaits and no inherited " Believe it or not, I found my dream colt in the natural walking ability, and this could well be the 1963 Harlinsdale Farm yearling sale. He was # 1 funeral march- the last rites- of the world- in the sales catalogue, selling under the name of renowned Tennessee Walking Horse!
Sun’ s Square Deal. I bought him and changed his
" When I get to Tennessee for Celebration Week, name to Sun’ s Midnight Duke. He is line-bred I spend several days at Harlinsdale Farm watching the yearlings that are there, which I am found in this colt greater potential as a sire than
Midnight Sun with 62j4 % Midnight Sun blood. I
interested in. I watch them being led on horses, I had even hoped for. I resisted the pressure to I watch them in the barn, I watch them when show this colt, principally because I am getting they are being shown to prospective buyers, and into this breeding business rather late in life, and I endeavor to find out about the background of am a man in a hurry. From the very beginning the yearlings, particularly with reference to the this colt showed great natural walking ability, natural walking ability of their ancestors. The and the very knowledgeable and experiences Mr. yearlings not at Harlinsdale Farm that I am HARLIN HAYES is riding him to further develop interested in, I go to look at and to look at their this inherited natural walking ability. It is a dams and grand dams, if there. By sale time, I great compliment to the Duke that Mr. Hayes am pretty well decided on what I would like to would be interested in riding him, and a further have, and have been very fortunate in getting compliment that Harlinsdale Farm would have them. Many buyers with more experience, and him enter the stud there. Anyone interested in with a sharper eye, would not spend all this seeing this colt work in his natural walking gaits energy and time in looking. Being a perfectionist, should contact Mr. Hayes to get his daily riding I have to do it the hard way. schedule.
" Besides these ten young Midnight Sun mares, " I thoroughly investigated the dam’ s side of I have bought 3 top young mares by Midnight Duke’ s pedigree, especially the bottom line- the Mack K. They were bought as yearlings to be dam line- and I checked with the people, mostly line-bred to Midnight Sun. Two of these I bought old-timers, who had either owned or ridden these from Mr. A. S. DEAN by the hardest. They are dams at a time when riding was the chief mode out of dams that are full sisters to the dam of of transportation, and every one of these mares Sun’ s Delight and Johnny Midnight. The. other were top natural walking mares. This makes me young mare by Mack K is out of FULTON even more confident that this young sire will be FRASER’ s well-known old Wilson’ s Allen mare, able to pass on his own inherited natural walking and my young mare is now in foal to Midnight ability with these dams behind him, and we all Sun. I also have a full younger sister to the dam know Midnight Sun’ s unsurpassed ability to sire of Sun’ s Delight and Johnny Midnight, and she natural walking horses. was bred to Midnight Sun. This mare came out " Mrs. Wilder and I have chosen the name of the J. GLENN TURNER close-out sale. ELKHORN STABLES for our breeding establishment, and we are registering the name. Our
" In 1960 I bought a fine young mare, Lindy Lou Long, to use as my personal saddle mare. foals will be given a name including Elkhorn, She was such a good brood mare type that I bred such as ' Elkhorn Beauty’, for example. In this her to Midnight Sun. Her first colt to sell at public auction, and also my first, brought $ 5,000.00 for our stables. The name Elkhorn is famous in
way, we hope to establish a permanent identity at Harlinsdale Farm yearling sale last September. His name is Design of Midnight, and he went forks of Elkhorn Creek meander around through
central Kentucky history for the north and south
to Mr. CHARLEY CORLEY, Tulsa, Oklahoma. A the world-famous horse farms, where the thoroughbred, the standardbred, the gaited horse, full yearling sister will be sold at Harlinsdale Farm sale next September, and we think she is and now the Tennessee Walking Horse gather as good as, if not better than, her brother at strength and substance from its celebrated limestone water.” this same stage. You can see I have a real challenge to maintain this price level.
" To eventually head up my stable of top young mares, I have been looking for several years for just the right young stallion. I wanted him to be
We sincerely feel that, with people such as Mr. and Mrs. WILDER active in the Walking Horse business, we can look forward to continued advancement
by Midnight Sun, and I wanted him line-bred for the breed. We appreciate their interest in allowing us to present this story about them and their Walking Horse activity. with as much as 62y2 % Midnight Sun blood. Since I put much emphasis on the dam side, I wanted him to come from a line of top natural walking mares. I wanted him to have inherited natural
APRIL, 1965 37